The standard kanji
of Shisochin mean “four
directional battle”. This is said to be an Okinawan
attempt to pronounce the Hokkien/Amoy reading
of the characters (pronounced "xi xiang zhan" in Mandarin). Shi/si
means "4", so/xiang means
"direction", and chin/zhan
means "battle".

Its origins are
thought by some to be in the
Fujian White Crane system while
others think it is from the Tiger or Dragon Shaolin system.

Yet another
theory is that it is from the Mantis/Cricket school of Shaolin boxing.
For a more on this point see "Origins
of Shisochin".

Shisochin
features powerful hip movements, light and fast kicks and devastating
grappling techniques. The kata is said to have been
Chojun Miyagi's
favourite kata because it best suited his physique.

An example of
a Shisochin technique and its bunkai (application) can be downloaded
here.
Another example can be found by clicking on the picture to the right.

Shisochin begins with 3
opening sanchinstances
making it superficially similar to the core kata of
Kanryo Higaonna.
However it departs from them in almost every other sense: the kata is
“symmetrical” and has a high proportion of “soft” techniques. Moreover
the opening thrusts are performed as nukite — knife hand thrusts. While
it is true that the core kata were originally practiced open hand, it is
more likely that, like the
Uechi-ryu kata, the
nukite where executed palm down to a point just below the attacker’s
nipple, not with a vertical hand to the solar plexus as per Shisochin.

Shisochin is even more of an
enigma when one considers that it may well have existed in Okinawa
before Kanryo Higaonna even left for China: there is written record of
Seisho Aragaki performing a kata named "Chisaukin" at a demonstration in
1867.

Researcher Akio Kinjo2
has suggested that Shisochin kata has its origins in the cricket/mantis systems of Fujian and that the original characters may well have been
which mean "cricket/mantis
battle" (pronounced "Shisauchin" in the Hokkien/Amoy dialect or "Xishuaizhan" in
Mandarin). This theory however appears to depend largely
on homophones and it is
difficult to find evidence of cricket or mantis techniques in Shisochin
(unlike, say,
Sanseiru or Suparinpei).

Traditionally Shisochin has
been considered part of either the Dragon or Tiger Shaolin systems while
others regard it as being very similar to Okinawan White Crane
kata, in particular the Ryuei Ryu kata Paiho.